Douglas Miller
patreon
MiP B2 Chapter 30: Royal Action
🕑 Added 2025-02-12 23:38:09 +0000 UTC<< First | < Previous | Next >
As the day faded into twilight, Carlos and Amber settled in their shared tent and got out Sandaras's spellbook for another look, now that their structures for perception and analysis were complete. Carlos cocked his head as he examined the lock spell again. "You know, I really have to stand by my initial assessment: that is a monstrous tangle of a spell. So many parts all interacting with each other in a hugely complex pattern."
Amber laughed and shook her head helplessly. "I have to agree, but at least we can sense and distinguish the parts now." She sighed. "At this point, it all comes down to power, doesn't it? That lock is made of extremely dense and powerful essence and mana, upwards of Level 40, I think. So are the royal guard enchantments. We'll have to close some of the distance between that and our own power before we can really make good progress on picking out their details."
Carlos shrugged. "Maybe so, but I'm not content to just wait for that. Relying on having a lot of power makes it a crutch, and there's always someone with more power. We should keep working on deciphering these things, even with our current disadvantage. No matter how slow our progress, it can serve as practice at tackling problems that are above our level."
Amber leaned back on her hands and looked at Carlos. "You are relentlessly optimistic and positive about this stuff. How do you do it?"
Carlos blinked and stared back for a moment. "Me? You're the one who recognized and seized the opportunity of a lifetime, even at the cost of throwing away your whole previous plan for your life, without even hesitating!"
Amber blushed and mumbled something under her breath. She smiled weakly. "Thanks. Goodnight, and I'll practice hard tomorrow." She deployed the tent's divider and settled into her blankets.
Carlos smiled tenderly, sighed, and followed suit.
___
Two days later and far away in Kalor City, Prince Patrimmon Kalor, second child of King Elston, struggled to hide his boredom. He sat on a resplendent throne, his muscular body decked out in full formal attire – all orichalcum dark orange, of course – and surveyed the lesser nobles who filled most of the audience chamber. Ugh. Why do I have to bother with these petty affairs? Just let the nobles fight things out among themselves. He restrained a sigh once again and nodded to the herald at the doors to let in the next petitioner.
"Announcing, High Lady Balon Briston, to petition the Crown for redress of grievances."
"The rest of them are here with me." Lady Balon's voice was coldly flat, biting off her words with barely restrained anger.
The herald hesitated only momentarily. "Lady Balon, there are dozens of nobles here waiting. You will have to name them specifically."
Lady Balon's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Very well, if you insist. Accompanying me in common cause for the same grievance are High Lord Uncher Kettet, High Lady Efam Stomren, High Lord Honwa Chold, Lord Torlar Vonmil, Lord Plara Facton…"
Prince Patrimmon stopped listening as the list just kept going, and going, with more and more nobles filing in with their token guards to form a grim-faced crowd. I don't care which nobles they are, but how many of them joined together is unusual. This might actually be interesting.
When she finally stopped listing names, the herald looked out the door and blinked. "My apology, Lady Balon, I did not realize you meant your words literally that all of the other nobles waiting were with you. This is extraordinary."
Another noble, Patrimmon didn't catch who, chided the herald from the crowd. "Get on with it. We're here on business."
The herald gave a quick bow and hurried on to the next formality. "You may approach and speak your grievance. Prince Patrimmon will hear your petition on behalf of the Crown."
Lady Balon strode forward, the other gathered nobles all marching in a tightly-packed crowd behind her. "This grievance is a matter for the Crown itself. I would speak with King Elston."
Prince Patrimmon leveled a displeased glare at her, but she remained uncowed. "That is for me to decide, not you. Who has offended so many of you, and how? Speak."
Lady Balon raised her eyes to meet his, returning his glare with defiance. "The Crown has denied us the ability to swiftly raise our scions to the levels needed to make use of our wellsprings. We demand that the restrictions against sending noble scions into the Wilds be lifted."
The prince stared at her unblinking, remaining silent as he took in what she'd just said. Is she serious? A demand delivered to the Crown? Wait, she mentioned the Wilds. Is this… He shook his head. "Is this about the matter of the illegal and treasonous 'rotation agreement' I've been hearing about recently?" He raised a hand to forestall her response. "No, don't bother. This court is for grievances against other nobles, not against the Crown. The Crown's rule is absolute and cannot be challenged. Unless you wish for your house to be destroyed, accept your place and abandon this foolishness at once."
Lady Balon's lips thinned for a moment before she spoke again, still defiant. "If that is the Crown's answer, then so be it, but you are not the Crown. A decision of such import properly belongs only to your father, King Elston Kalor himself."
Prince Patrimmon lifted off from his throne, moving by the power of his will alone, then straightened to loom threateningly over the crowd. "Are you questioning the Crown's decision in delegating the authority for this court to me? Consider carefully. You are one wrong word from being arrested."
Lady Balon glared back at him for several tense seconds, then without another word turned and walked away. The other nobles accompanying her stepped aside to clear her path, then turned and followed her out, their marching footsteps the only sound in the entire audience chamber until the door closed behind the last of them.
Outside the chamber, Lady Balon took a deep breath and shook her head. "Well, that could have gone better."
___
Two more days after Lady Balon's ill-fated attempt at working out a compromise with the uncompromising Crown, Carlos and Amber woke up with a new task ahead of them. Carlos took stock mentally before even moving from his position of slumber. All 10 slots are filled with superstructures now. There's the soul-themed one – my own soul, to be specific – then mind, IDE, perception, understanding/analysis, casting spells, controlling spells, empowering spells, and connecting self-buffing spells to myself to be as effective as soul structures. Each and every one of them formed of 13 basic structures, but disguised so external scans see just 4 supers from Tier 10 down to Tier 7 at our current level of 22 and a batch of 6 basics filling the other space.
And then there's the original, which is formed of only 10 structures and is now wholly redundant, all of its components duplicated in one or another of the other superstructures. I'm not sure whether it's better to edit that in place or scrap and rebuild it from scratch, but either way, today it's getting replaced with a royal-tier superstructure themed for countering interference for our spells.
He yawned and stretched. And when that's done, our entire soul plan will at last be complete, just in time for moving day. He chuckled quietly. We'll be all out of excuses to not go practice and get experience with how to fight with our magic. Hmm. We should pick the next campsite with an eye toward having some good hunting grounds nearby, close enough for Purple to extend his domain into them. If we have to leave his domain to practice properly, it will significantly reduce our leveling speed.
Carlos sighed and sat up, casting off his warm blanket. "Alright, time to get up. Let's see how many more keywords of the sabotage enchantment we can decipher this time."
___
Meanwhile, in a far distant city, a young woman dressed in dark orange walked up to the imposing front gate of a sprawling castle. Stone and steel towered above her, looming menacingly and adorned with powerful enchantments, but she ignored the implied threat. After all, she could dismantle the entire castle, enchantments and all, with her bare hands if she wanted to.
She pounded her fist on the gate 3 times, carefully holding back to merely make a loud noise rather than tear the gate from its heavy hinges. The sound of her knocks was still echoing when a viewing slit opened 10 feet up and a voice called out from inside. "State your name and business here."
Suddenly, the young woman was hovering in the air, looking back through the slit at the same level. "Princess Lornera Kalor, here to see High Lord Recindril Tostral on a matter of import to the Crown. Bring him to me at once, or me to him, I don't care which."
The guard hesitated, but an immense pressure suddenly emanated from the princess, and he leaped to obey. The heavy gate slowly swung open, and Lornera deigned to descend to land and actually walk as he beckoned her to follow.
They had only walked a short distance when another voice called out from around a corner. "What's all that racket about? You should know better than to make so much noise, it's annoying!" The speaker of this complaint came into view, and the guard paused and bowed.
"My apology, Lady Jamar, but–"
Lornera interrupted. "'Lady' Jamar? Has something happened to Lord Recindril, his heir Recindren, and both of his other 2 children? My latest information is that Jamar Tostral is not yet fully adult, much less the head of her house."
Jamar's face flushed red, and she put her right hand on the hilt of one of her sheathed swords. "Who are you to dare disrespect me? My father will hear of this!"
Lornera just raised an eyebrow and smirked at her. "I'd think the color of my regalia would be enough of a clue. Don't you?"
Jamar did a double take and gaped. "What? You– The Crown!? But–"
A sudden overwhelming intangible pressure forced Jamar to her knees, and Lornera picked her up by the back of her shirt. "Your father will indeed hear of this, but I think not in the manner you want. And after this insult, I am done with showing your house respect." She glanced aside at the guard who'd been leading her. "You may return to your post. I will find Lord Recindril myself."
Lornera lifted off from the ground, still dangling Jamar from her right hand, and extended her senses outward. There was some minor resistance from wards meant to block spying magic, but she pushed through them with ease and located the castle's lord in moments. Barely a heartbeat later, she had flown through the halls to the chamber in question – a large room well-equipped for exercise and fencing – and opened the door.
High Lord Recindril Tostral, with commendable reflexes, was already facing the door when Lornera opened it. He took in her appearance and cargo with a quick glance and frowned. "Princess, what is the meaning of this? Why are you here, and why have you captured Jamar?"
Princess Lornera casually tossed Jamar on the ground between them. "It appears that you have been neglectful in raising your 4th child, Recindril. Did you know that she has your guards trained to call her by a noble title she does not yet have, for fear of punishment for 'disrespecting' her? And she didn't even bother to observe my plainly obvious regalia before admonishing me for disrespecting her as well."
Recindril gave his daughter a hard look, then shook his head and returned his attention to Lornera. "Be that as it may, you came here for a different reason."
"You hired the Black Blades."
Recindril scoffed. "You're guessing. Even they do not know who hires them, by their own design. And even if true, that is hardly a crime."
"To soul-kill a high noble who is under the direct protection of the Crown."
Recindril froze. "What? Carlos…"
Lornera smiled grimly. "High Lord Carlos Founder, of common background, was given temporary Crown protection in light of his lack of existing resources, as per long-established, if rarely-invoked, Crown policy. Captain Granlan was exceedingly cooperative about helping track you down once he learned he'd been hired to commit treason. And speaking of treason, you can thank neglected Jamar, there, for speaking of the rotation agreement in the direct personal presence of two royal guards."
"But–" Jamar, eyes wide and face blanched almost white, tried to object from the floor, but Recindril interrupted her with a barked command.
"Silence! You have done too much damage already, Jamar." He returned his attention to Lornera. "What do you intend to do? I was not aware of their Crown protection when I gave the order."
"Hmm." Lornera glanced down at Jamar again. "I was considering being lenient, but it seems your negligence is habitual, not an exception. Taking Jamar might be doing you a favor. I'll take Recindren instead."
Jamar sprang to her feet and yelled. "What? We're a high house! You can't just bully–"
Lornera slapped Jamar's head so violently that Jamar flew into the wall behind her and collapsed, blood beginning to pool around her. "Perhaps when she respawns, she will have learned some small part of the lessons you have failed to give her. Now, for Recindren."
Recindril raised the sword he'd been holding the whole time. "Taking my heir is too much. Be reasonable."
Lornera looked at his raised sword for a moment, then shook her head with a wry smile. "You just volunteered to be our example for everyone about the rotation agreement." She moved faster than he could react, and suddenly Recindril's head was flying through the air, separated from his neck by her hand that had become a blade.
Seconds later, Princess Lornera was looking down on the castle from the height of a cloud. As she curled up into a ball and took aim, she reflected to herself. It's always amused me that no one has guessed how the Crown makes craters. It's so simple, but no one even considers the idea of slamming yourself into the ground at high speed as an attack. To be fair, for people less durable than us, it would likely be suicide.
She began to descend, picking up speed rapidly as she became a human cannonball. The tricky part will be calibrating this to leave the wellspring's containment intact. That, and leaving Recindren alive to take hostage from the scattered remains of his former home.
<< First | < Previous | Next >
Comments
George
She also showed respect to the lowly gate guard in this chapter. She seems the sort who prefers to deal with all others respectfully, so long as they give those around them respect (and of course, give her the respect due to her own station). It's not shown explicitly, but I get the feeling that the Princess disliked Jamar from the very moment the guard fearfully addressed the scion with an unearned honorific. Good thing Carlos is the respectful sort.
Sid_Cypher
> revolutions are [...] instigated by the wealthy A true revolution changes the socioeconomic foundation of power, like a change from feudalism to capitalism, from monarchy to plutocracy. The nobles just want a more agreeable (weaker) Crown.
Ben Bass
TYFTC! So human cannon balls are used to create large holes in the ground. I do like the use of respawning to make examples, and also I guess kidnapping as that seems to be a bit more potent over time then just killing people who will respawn.
NoneSuch
Any chance we can expect a chapter today? Or at least an update?
Jouni Osmala
Small talk is quite a different between men and women, less emotional content more about factual discussion about hypothetical issues with each one bringing facts that they know or think they know about the matter with full focusing about arguments about the matter instead of person who gives or receives the argument. But generally speaking, male author's and readers enjoy more about building worlds and fighting with substance instead of focusing on relationships. It's kind of a gendered difference, based on differences on arena's where women have fought historically and men have fought historically. Oh. And I'm treating you like you would be male also what your answer implies is not true.
Maurice Brown
Dear god, I travel for one week and we’re seeing DBZ levels of Find Out…
MoonlitShade
Yeah thanks guys but I was kinda asking the author about his *plans* for the future of the story. Didn’t need fucking weirdos replying to me about pregnancy and shit, that’s not what I asked lmao 😭
Timo Geerties
I don't think, they are bound as a couple. They just happen to share the same family name, like adoptive siblings of sorts
Test Patron Plz Ignore
In fairness, we don't actually know anything about the cultural expectations/implications of marriage in this world or if they're considered married at all yet.
Jouni Osmala
Technically, they probably are already married by the crown just by being founders of a house into hereditary nobility, and giving her his name as surname. However, fighting monsters while pregnant isn't anyone's interest. They just got told, you two are married now, go fight monsters to establish your estate. They are solving immediate problems, not adding the problem of starting a family into it yet. And from our perspective it's been more than a year, but form their perspective they have known one another for about a month. But one vibe I got out of them is more like, they are so interested in career problems that romance part just does not have space in the mind. Also before 1800's there was a notion that romance and marriage are incompatible and marriage was about she making his biological children and her from him children would inherit him. And all their energy would actually need to go towards making sure they and their children would survive and avoid death by famine or any other major killer in medieval times. It was more of an alliance with responsibilities with shared goals. Oh. And considering her reaction in the reason why tent is sound proof, its area that she hasn't really thought about even before meeting him. And Carlos also sounds like a nerd highly focused thinking about technical problems. However, I wouldn't be surprised if at one point they just realized that they need a heir and start solving that problem like any other problem. And she clearly hasn't been spending time with modern romance novels and he clearly hasn't spending time with porn. As those would have formed the fantasies that are not realistic expectations of the other. I kind of expect that part to handled by simply someone realizing that the next step in establishing a noble house is to make children, and either or both of them that didn't realize that just says ok, and they goto bed and just do it. Maybe check existence of fertility related keyword, and cast a spell to increase it. And then go on their plans to strengthen their noble house. Yes, romance is a luxury that has to give up for survival. And we live in safer society where our survival needs are met far more easily. However, long term survival is dependent in having kids in medieval settings thus sex is still a needed action.
MoonlitShade
Great chappy, wordsmith. There’s something I’ve been wondering about for a long time, and not sure if you’ve answered it anywhere: Will there ever be romance between Carlos and Amber? Currently they have a weird friends/roomates thing going on as Heads of the House, but will they ever go further? Husband and wife as Heads of the House?
Timo Geerties
You give them the framework to strenghten themselves, making the most fundamental functions public knowledge. It's basically like handing a loaded gun to every citizen within a strongly hierarchical nation. And especilly the wronged peasants probably want to shoot the mighty. Can't get a Kalor but no Kalor can run a country that's tearing apart
Nate W
Yeah, the way that item sabotage reaches out and messes with the spell as it's being cast, he'll have a structure for doing that. It will probably be able to change the target of opponents' spells to turn them back on the caster or something. He'll likely also have one for countering that type of spell sabotage and more.
Jouni Osmala
I was thinking, the role of a tank commander with general observation of battlefield. But yes. During combat just like in WW2 German Panzer advantage of having a separate commander with battlefield awareness is a critical advantage. But you need quick planning loop only in dynamic environments. But for long term background tasks there's no need to have a separate mind dedicated to that task since all minds are basically the same person each mind focused on different task at the moment. But what I was mainly interested this time I brought this thing was super charged learning. Lot of things what thread scheduler would be responsible for are handled by soul structures in the mind superstructure. Each thread is aware of memories of other threads because of soul structures. And the mental context switcher allows switching between tasks effectively. And that was BEFORE there were 5 more structures added to minds super structure. It would make sense that those 5 structures would really add the effectiveness of having extra minds as lot of structures are required to get it to just work safely. Probably most important addition to basics would be something to help focus better while still being synchronized. But I personally would USE that minds structure all the time, since too many ideas I want to pursue too little time to pursue them. Too many things I want to learn and practice, but having to prioritize between them. Carlos could potentially pursue MANY ideas and learn and practice MANY things. It's like having a multiplier on available time. Or could pursue ONE goal from MANY different perspectives. That minds structure is multiplier on available TIME. On the time perspective, ability to speed up mind so that everything else is slow would be one of possibly great improvements in going from 8 to 13 structures for the minds. Of course one structure should be dedicated to help consolidate learning into permanent knowledge. It's RATE of improvement that minds give, not just immediate use for short term goals. Imagine being able to do hundreds of hours worth of studying and practice each day. That would increase capabilities quite quickly.
Duckytheclaw
like a thread scheduler?
viperfan7
I have a feeling that Carlos is working on something akin to a security gateway. Firewall, antivirus, and VPN all in one. And it's gonna be be able to learn, and adapt. And it's not just gonna be passive, it's going to actively neutralize threats, instead of just blocking them.
viperfan7
You're forgetting about possibly the most useful one. A mind solely dedicated to controlling the other minds, distributing resources, and determining priority
Tezq Gelrock
I now find myself thinking; What would a full soul plan for a "commoner" look like (if it where allowed)? How efficient would the empire (kingdom?) be if all it's citizens had a "optimized" full soul plan for their occupations?
Jouni Osmala
The three minds at earlier level was a boost for development. After leveling up the structures more minds probably becomes extremely OP, but that's probably necessary seeing the political turmoil coming. One obvious thing to consider, is learning and practicing. Besides having active mind doing things, having observing minds making observations from different perspectives. And having some minds always in the background going through the catalog of spell words to actually learn to remember more words is extremely useful. Also practicing mental math, and solving different problems. Then if the IDE can handle multiple minds working on different spells, for practicing how to build different kinds of spells. But huge boost, would be amount of focus one mind can put in the IDE if that mind doesn't need to consider any physical tasks or have any interruptions, just imagine full 16 hour's of uninterrupted focus on specific coding problem simply because something else handles ALL physical needs, that's a BLISS. In social situations, having a separate mind observing and trying to see perspective of each person separately, including separate mind for figuring out counter move for any violent action of that individual could make in its position. Except that probably at least one mind is staying on the IDE to give that blissful 16hour coding session feeling. In combat. Spellcasting multiple times, physical combat, observing multiple opponents, observing surroundings, observing own mistakes for future reference, looking for weaknesses and dangers on each opponent.
Connor Mcharg
…I have to wonder, how rigidly does the respawn system choose the location of respawn - because I suspect Jamar and Recindril Tostral might find themselves falling when they respawn… (I can only assume that if that proved fatal, they’d start respawning somewhere else fairly shortly) …actually, speaking of respawning, they’re going to have an interesting time finding some clothes to wear in their new crater.
Markell
Why do I get the feeling the crown is about to learn that revolutions are rarely lead by the common man but instigated by the wealthy when the risk of death suddenly stops outweighing the gains of a regime change. Numbers are quite capable of overwhelming superior powers, and now that the prince just snubbed the nobles they’ve made the managed to achieve the one thing any dictatorship never wants from their ruling class… unity. Being given no recourse and no alternative to insurrection, the noble houses now have a reason to stop squabbling amongst themselves and direct their entire ire towards the crown and any of their remaining allies. Including Carlos.
Jouni Osmala
Maybe, a smart move from Lady Balon would have been answering the prince. "I do not, question Crown's decision to delegate authority to this court, however like you said this court is not for grievances against crowns OLD decisions, and we are requesting a hearing with the correct authority to make that kind of NEW decision to solve a problem we all face currently.".
a passing Fnord
God-Rod Cannon ball
Craig Hannah
Thank you for the chapter!
Dan Chadwick
Boom! Nice closer!
Test Patron Plz Ignore
This chapter was worth the wait! It was super fun, and I look forward to the epic battles on the horizon.
NightKhaos
Princess Lornera does not f**k around. Puts the respect she showed to Carlos in considerable perspective now.
Rachel
Holy shit, no wonder the nobles are so afraid of the crown. Probably a good thing House Carlos has their souls disguised or else people would start shitting their pants the moment they took a look at them, and the crown would probably bring the hammer down. Also yay we finally have a breakdown of the state of the soul plan!
D S
Thanks for the chapter! (I, quite possibly, read the chapter too quickly; 3 min)
Duckytheclaw
helo
